Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those killed during the floods in Assam and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
Prime Minister’s Office requested the Assam Government to furnish details of fund requirement along with list incorporating the names of deceased, their next of kin and seriously injured persons with their complete postal address.
Sonowal in his recent meeting with the Prime Minister in New Delhi apprised him about the gravity of flood in Assam. The Prime Minister assured the Chief Minister of extending all support to the State Government in tackling flood and accordingly the ex-gratia relief is announced today.
Further, as per direction of the Prime Minister, a seven member Inter-Ministerial Central team visited Assam with three days programme and carried out on-the- spot-assessment of flood damage. The team has already completed the assessment and would soon submit their report with recommendations to the Government of India for early release of fund to tackle the flood damages
in Assam.
Meanwhile, the Central team called on the Assam Chief Minister today and apprised him about the findings of their visit to the flood affected districts.
The team led by V Shashank Shekhar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs told the Chief Minister that they personally saw the damages and the distress and migration of the flood hit people.
He mentioned that the teams were divided into two groups and visited the flood hit Brahmaputra and Barak valley districts. As part of their on-the-spot-assessment, the teams interacted with the affected people and respective district administrations to find out the intensity of damage caused by the flood, Shekhar informed.
Chief Minister Sonowal appreciated the visit of the central team in the midst of flood which helped them to see the real damages casued by flood in the state said that most of the embankments which were constructed as safeguard to rural economy and habitations already outlived their life.
The Chief Minister informed the team that already a proposal was submitted to the Government of India to take up ‘Prime Minister’s Special Programme for Flood and Erosion Control’ for developing embankments of the state as road-cum-embankments stretching 5,000 km.
Suggesting the team to include the proposal as one of the recommendations in their report, the Chief Minister said that once the 5000 km stretch is converted into road-cum-embankments, this would help rural people in terms of connectivity and will benefit rural economy as well as tourism. This initiative would also facilitate implementation of PMGSY to connect every village in the state.